WEST POINT, Ky.--A casualty list from the Knob Creek Gun Range, which hosted one of the country's largest machine-gun shoots this past weekend, would look something like this: Two dozen old appliances. A dozen junked cars. Tens of thousands of rounds of spent ammunition. Zero people.

I have "been there and done that", although I didn't make it either time this year. Last time I was there I bought my wife a set of camoflauge undies. She was really impressed. I say that because she must have put them in the bank vault; at least, I've never seen them since.

When I lived in Tennessee, there were always invitations to go to "the Creek". Unfortunately, I had never had a passion for machine guns and always refused. That is until now when someone showed me a little subgun in .22LR. I fell in love with that thing.

Over at my lease, there's a guy that was on one of the programs for the History Channel. He brings out his MG 42 and some more toys. Last Sunday someone brought out a Barrett 50BMG semi. They haven't tried to shoot long distance yet. I'm still waiting to see the videos that were taken. I clipped a bowling pin one time with a .50 at around 300 yards but since it was a poor hit, it didn't do much damage.

According to the article, someone had a Civil War era Gatling gun. Most Gatlings I have seen are cartridge guns from the Indian Wars. The 1963 Model didn't really use cartridges. They used steel sleeves that had the nipples on the back for the percussion caps. Sort of like little gun barrels. I have the plans for one but I never got around to making one. I thought that I could take a machinist's class at a college and just use their equipment.

There's a little bit of erroneous info here. You can get outfitted with a bolt action, single shot .50 caliber Barrett, for about $5500., scope and all. The semi-automatic version will run about ten grand, but I can't imagine ever wanting to use a semi outside of combat. This is a "hold 'em and squeeze 'em" type weapon. A little recovery time is needed between each round for the average shooter.

Do y'all know where I can get a list of places in Texas which allows full auto shooting? I'm seriously trying to buy a belt fed .30 or .50 caliber full auto. I also need to know places that have 500 to 1000 yard firing ranges for the .50 caliber Barrett.

I'll have to ask the guys who sell the full autos at the Market Hall Gunshow. I think they might be able to set me up with some ranges. The downside is anyone who can afford something like that probably has their own land.

The next Knob Creek shoot will be in Spring 1994, April 09/10/11, though there are other somewhat lesser affairs [and some better suited to those with specialized weaponry interests] but you'll find details on the next Knob Creek Range shoot here:

There's also a videotap offering that'll give you some idea of what a weekend there is like here: *I*, *II*, *III*, and *IV*

Do y'all know where I can get a list of places in Texas which allows full auto shooting?

I'm seriously trying to buy a belt fed .30 or .50 caliber full auto.

There's a good ol' boy Texas MG dealer named Keith that's pretty heavily into the MAC 10 and .30 Brownings, and he should have a few ideas on ranges in your neck of the woods, too. Check out his website here, and drop Keith an e-mail for a list of the TX ranges he knows of. He's also been known to put on his own mini-shoots in Texas.

There's an M55 mount I know of available for around ten grand, if it wasn't snapped up at this last KC shootemup fest. Add on 4 Browning .50s [or a pair of 20mm cannons like the Israelis do, or a 7,62 minigun or two like Mike Dillon of Dillon Reloading (ever wonder why he got into making machinery for reloading ammo for mass consumption? Now you know)] or high rate of fire M85 .50 calibers, and you'll be all set.

A pal of mine in Texas has got one, just the thing for use behind an Army *Mule* ATV.

just as a small personal observation, I understand some of the foreigh mortars just a bit smaller than the American M19 60mm can be turned into very credible golfball launchers, some with a range in excess of 400 meters, offering an interesting possibility for the long fairways.

Hmmm, no wind...caddy, get the model 50-PM-40 out of the cart. Charge four....

That's the tops of what I can spend, archy. I figure if I work two jobs for the next fifty years, I can pay for what I buy. A mount wouldn't do me a lot of good without the guns, though.

Hummm....maybe I can work three jobs! Yeah, sleep is a waste of time, anyway.

Sleep? Oh yeah the state I've visited for 5 hours in the last three days. Yeah, I remember what sleep was!

If you're on a 10 K budget, you might want to stick with magazine-fed toys, it can be hell having a hungry belt-fed weapon with nothing to feed it. But a lot of .30 shooters are running guns set up to use 8mm German ammo, now available pretty cheap at around .04/round or so, better than the dime-plus for 7,62 or .30-06 M2 ball.

Or you might consider getting into one of the belt-fed Browning .30 semiautos, which start off in the $1000-$1500 range- if nothing else, they make a good starting place for learning the Browning innards and they can be teamed with a full-auto gun on a twin-gun mount. The barrels, feed components and topcover of the semis remain unchanged and are still usable as spares in a full-auto gun. And the 8mm conversions ought to work in either.

And there is another possible way into the full-auto .50 world besides the Browning guns...might be cheaper in the long run, might not be.

Well, I've got to get set up to reload the .50s, anyway. As much as I like to shoot the Barrett, I can't afford the ammo, even at $2.00 a round off the Internet, and I sure can't afford match ammo at $4.50 a round! I figure I can reload for less than a buck a round and make shooting a lot easier on the pocketbook. That's the reason I was thinking about a .50 caliber belt fed. I can probably stretch my budget to 15k if I see something I really like.

In the Dallas area for 1000 yard ranges their Tac-Pro and for subguns like I said there's my lease. That's it so far. I have to wait until the next gun show to start asking unless I try to call this one gun shop tomorrow. They might know of a place.

I would think any place no further from Houston than Dallas would be okay. The Bullet Hole Range in San Antonio has a machine gun range, but it's really small. They really have no place of sufficient range to fire the .50 caliber. The round of the .50 doesn't even stabilize at 100 yards so I can't really tell what I'm doing. Don't go to a lot of trouble, but whatever you can find out would be appreciated.

Hey, thanks! I can't think of a better reason to travel and shoot short of filling my freezer with venison.

Which happens in 17 days. ;-)

Good on ya! I've enjoyed getting out with a rifle for my last half-dozen years here in Tennessee, rather than the shotgun-only hunts I got used to after two decades in Indiana. But I'd *fill my freezer* about every other year there, and I've done no better nor worse here, so I'm certainly not complaining.

Any excuse to get away from offices and cell phones work for me, and I believe I'd go out even if I knew for certain in advance that I wouldn't be bringing any meat back.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.